Lamari Leads in Fundraising in MoCo's District 4

Campaign finance reports filed this week show Montgomery County Council candidate Cary Lamari leading in fundraising in the District 4 special election contest to fill the open seat left by the death of Don Praisner in January.

Lamari, a civic activist and Democrat, raised $3,592 through March 17, according to reports filed with the Maryland State Board of Elections. The former Montgomery County Civic Federation president also loaned his campaign $10,000 and had about $11,800 on hand going into the final month of the primary race.

Del. Benjamin Kramer (D) raised $2,200, followed by Board of Education member Nancy Navarro who raised $2,090 during the same period. Kramer has loaned his campaign $23,000 and reported a balance of $4,162. Navarro, who ran unsuccessfully against Praisner in last year's special election, had a prior balance of $43,220 and reported $12,151 in the bank.

Navarro's campaign aide David Moon said in an e-mail that her first fundraiser of the season is planned for tonight and he expects her next report to show "strong totals."

Other candidates in the April 21 primary contests - funeral director Michael Bigler, a Democrat; information technology consultant Thomas Hardman, a Democrat: and non-profit executive Lou August, a Republican - reported loans of less than $1,000 to each of their own campaigns.

We already have 8 members on the council who voted to give us the largest property tax increase in 20 years, a 13.5% increase. We certainly don't need a 9th.

Especially when passage of my Ficker Amendment in November gives one council member the power to block the 8 who want to raise property taxes again in the 2010 election year as they did in 2006 by raising the county budget 14.6% to spread around election year goodies for votes.

I shall be the one vote that is needed to block the eight council members, who have already raised property taxes, from raising them again next year, because the council needs 9 votes to do so.

BEN KRAMER voted last night to ALLOW ILLEGAL ALIENS TO KEEP THEIR MARYLAND DRIVERS LICENSE. We cannot allow someone who is aiding and abetting illegals to get elected to our county council. Kramer and Navarro are just the same---both AIDING AND ABETTING the illegals at the expense of the citizen. Vote NO for Kramer AND Navarro.

As you know, I have long opposed Driving Permits and State ID cards for people who can't prove legal presence. I am all over the place on record supporting the REAL ID Act of 2005 and speedy implementation of the same.

Ms Marimow, I am not merely an IT "consultant", I am an actual developer, with recently-issued US Patent #7,464,403, "secure mobile office application integration suite running entirely from CD-ROM". As something of an expert on Open Source Free Software such as Linux, and plain old Open Source (non-free) software, I hope to save the taxpayers millions by replacing Microsoft Windows(tm) and expensive proprietary applications with Open Source software. It can be reviewed, developed, improved, all by people who live and work in Maryland. Why send taxpayer dollars to Redmond, Washington or Mumbai, India? Save the taxpayers money and spend what taxes are collected on salaries for Marylanders with valid licenses that assure us all that they have a right to be working here.